Deployment - Bluebeam eXtreme Conference 2014
- 1. Provider No. 40119250 Course Number: BBX021 Deployment Jared Adler Enterprise Support Lead Technical Support Manager #bbeXtreme Paul Wagner
- 2. Credit(s) earned on completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request. This course is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product. ___________________________________________ Questions related to specific materials, methods, and services will be addressed at the conclusion of this presentation
- 3. Course Description Deploy Revu company-wide with Bluebeam’s Enterprise Deployment Packages. Eliminate inconveniences caused by installing Revu on individual desktops, and customize and standardize Revu to best serve your needs.
- 4. Learning Objectives • Understand the basics of the unattended (silent) installation of Revu to multiple users. • Use Profiles and tool sets to standardize workflows and interface appearance. • Distribute custom settings for features such as tool sets and Profiles. • Centrally manage PDF creation settings using the Bluebeam Administrator.
- 5. Enterprise Deployment Installer Options MSI Deployment Package (MSI Deploy) The MSI Deploy packages are available in 32- and 64-bit versions, and are run via the Msiexec Utility. Pre-requisites and an uninstall script are included to be deployed ahead of time. Parameters can be configured through an MSI editor, such as Orca or InstEd, and run with a network deployment vehicle, such as SCCM or Group Policy. InstallShield Silent (Silent Setup) Silent Setup packages a universal 32/64-bit setup.exe with an InstallShield Silent response file (setup.iss) to activate an automated installation performed through a command line. Silent Setup automatically installs pre-requisites (e.g. .NET) and uninstalls previous versions as part of the process. Command lines can be added to a log-on script and run when the workstation is logged on, or deployed remotely from the server.
- 6. Customizing Your Deployment Both Silent Setup & MSI allow you to make the same customizations and standardizations. • Register during installation, or after, with Delayed Authorization. • Deploy PDF creation settings • Configure Revu preference settings • Control which plugins are enabled by default (e.g. AutoCAD, Revit, Office) • Disable select features, including Product Updates and Edit Content • Installation Options: • Set Revu as Default PDF Viewer (Red or Blue Icon) • Desktop shortcuts • Internet Explorer viewer • Quick Launch
- 7. Post-Installation Customization Command line parameters for Revu.exe and PbMngr5.exe allow the ability to quickly deploy resources and settings silently to a workstation running Bluebeam Software applications. They can be set up as a .bat file and run as a logon script to easily: • Import a tool set, hatch pattern or Profile into the current user’s roaming profile directory. • Add a tool set or hatch pattern from a network location. • Configure Revu to use a shared Profile directory. • Enable or disable plugins, register trials, or re-register when converting to an Enterprise License.
- 8. Standardize Workflows With Tool Sets, Preferences & Profiles
- 9. Standardize the Revu Interface With Panels, Tabs and Toolbars
- 10. Profiles • Profiles store toolbars, menus and other display settings within Revu, and are used to shape the user interface of Revu for particular job functions within an organization. • Customized Profiles can be imported on each workstation and controlled locally. • Revu can also be configured to work from a shared Profile directory, ensuring everyone is working from a uniform configuration.
- 11. Profiles > Toolbars • Many common functions are available through a series of toolbars. These can be dragged and repositioned. • Toolbars can be customized to include the desired tools, and new custom toolbars can be created. • The toolbars and their configuration are saved in the Profile, so you only need to enable those needed for a given job function.
- 12. Tool Chest > Tool Sets Revu's exclusive Tool Chest™ allows you to standardize workflows by creating custom tool sets with pre-configured markups and share them with colleagues around the world. • This includes Revu iPad, as well as Vu Windows and Vu iPad for use with Studio Sessions!
- 13. Sharing Custom Tool Sets • After making customizations, save the tool set. • Manage Tool Sets > Export • How to distribute: • Email .btx file, or copy to a network drive, and then double-click it to manually import to Revu. You can also add or import automatically with the post-installation customization command lines during or after deployment.
- 14. Sharing Tool Sets – Adding vs Importing Adding the tool set will list the tool set while leaving the tool set's file in its original location. • Add tool sets when you want to share a tool set on a network drive and keep all users’ versions of that set the same. • Shared tool sets can be checked out for editing. Use Windows File Permissions to limit this. Importing the tool set will make a copy of the tool set and store it in the user’s Roaming Profile directory. • Import tool sets when the tool set will be used only by the local user, or if you do not want local changes to sync with other users' copies.
- 15. Offline Tool Sets • New in Revu 12, tool sets shared from a centralized location are cached locally and can be used while offline. • While offline, tool sets will not be updated and cannot be checked out for editing.
- 16. Hatch Patterns Hatch patterns can be defined to fill enclosed annotations and measurements. These include any rectangle, ellipse, polygon and arc-based annotations. Area and volume measurements can also have hatch patterns applied.
- 17. Creating and Sharing Hatch Patterns Revu includes a set of default hatch patterns. Custom patterns can be created with the Hatch Pattern Editor. Additionally, AutoCAD .pat files may be imported into Revu using the Hatch Pattern Manager. • Hatch patterns can be exported and imported locally on other computers, or added from a shared network location. • Hatch patterns can also be included in a Profile when exported if Include Dependencies is checked.
- 18. Custom Columns The data displayed in Revu’s Markups list is highly customizable. You can choose which columns are shown and in what order, and even create Custom Columns, including ones that perform user-defined calculations. • Click Save to Profile to add the currently defined Custom Columns to all PDFs opened or created in Revu. • Saving to Profile will include these columns in an exported Profile when Include Dependencies is checked, ensuring all team members are using the same template.
- 19. Custom Statuses The default statuses for markups in Revu’s Markups list are Accepted, Rejected, Cancelled, Completed and None. Revu also supports the creation of custom statuses to suit any workflow. • Click Save to Profile to include custom statuses as part of the Profile.
- 20. Sharing Custom Profiles • After making customizations, save the Profile. • Manage Profiles > Export • Select Include Dependencies to include tool sets, Custom Columns, custom statuses, hatch patterns, line styles and Structures™ (eXtreme only). • How to distribute: • Email .bpx file or copy to a network drive, then double-click to manually import locally. You can also import automatically with the post-installation customization command lines during or after deployment.
- 21. Profiles – Import vs Shared Importing a Profile will copy the file to the user’s local Windows account. • Any modifications to the interface, such as opening and closing tabs and panels, as well as enabling and disabling toolbars, will be saved automatically when Revu is closed. Directing Revu to a shared Profile folder allows any new or modified Profiles stored in this location to be immediately available. • Modifications to the interface are NOT automatically saved when Revu is closed. • Profiles can be manually saved, and Windows File Permissions can be used to limit this to specific users or groups.
- 22. Offline Profiles • New in Revu 12, Profiles shared from a centralized location are cached locally and can be used while offline. • While offline, Profiles will not be updated, and other shared Profiles will be available to an offline user, but might have reduced functionality (notably, some tool sets might be unavailable).
- 24. Customizing Revu Preferences Can be used to standardize options for all users • DMS libraries (SharePoint & ProjectWise) • Studio Server name • Toolbar Integration Only (DMS & Studio) Export to save RevuPreferences.xml • Can be deployed during installation • Can also be pushed out after installation
- 25. Merging Preferences Custom preference settings can be deployed to existing users. • Add Merge=“True” • Delete all settings but those you want to distribute
- 26. Merging Preferences – How To • Revu's UserPreferences.xml stores these settings for each user and gets saved when Revu closes. In order for settings to merge, the date modified of RevuPreferences.xml must be later than Revu's user preferences. • Close Revu, copy RevuPreferences.xml to C:ProgramDataBluebeam SoftwareBluebeam RevuRevu, open the file in a text editor, add a space and save it. • When Revu is launched, the new settings will be merged.
- 27. Standardizing PDF Creation Settings Bluebeam Administrator > Managed Net Config: • Custom page sizes • Global page setups for plugins (e.g. Word, AutoCAD) • Stamps • Email templates
- 28. Preparing a Managed Net Config Start by creating custom page sizes. • Bluebeam Administrator > Printer Tab > Manage Pages
- 29. Standardize PDF Creation Plugin Page Setups Create global page setups for Bluebeam application plugins (including AutoCAD, Revit and Word).
- 30. Preparing a Managed Net Config • Create custom stamps • Create email templates
- 31. Enabling a Managed Net Config Select Managed Net Configuration in the Net Config tab of the Bluebeam Administrator and browse to the desired folder. • Copy All adds all defaults to the network directory. • Merge takes all locally defined settings and merges them with any existing configurations in the shared folder. • No Copy will point to the network location and not integrate any local settings to the network location.
- 32. Deploying a Managed Net Config This location can be specified during deployment or set via command line for existing installations.
- 33. Further Information The details what was discussed today and provides you with the information and examples to plan and execute your deployment. • Deployment – Provides an overview of the process of automating an unattended deployment of Revu through both the Silent Setup and MSI deployment methods. • Bluebeam Administrator – Provides an overview of the application that allows users to manage their Bluebeam Software products. • Help Menu > Command Line Options • Managed Configurations - Defining locations for properties that may be centralized on a network (e.g. stamps, page sizes). • Revu Settings – Intro to Profiles, preferences and tool sets, along with a tutorial on applying them in an organization. • Appendices – Provides technical parameters, configuration examples, command line examples and a full deployment walkthrough.
- 34. Best Practices • Revu needs to be deployed with elevated permissions. First, test the installation from an elevated command prompt, and then test with your deployment vehicle (e.g. Log on script, Group Policy, SCCM). • The post-installation command lines for Revu are user-specific settings and only apply to the user running the command line (i.e., the current user) and should not be run as the Administrator. Making them part of a run-once logon script is recommended. • Profiles & Tool Sets – Share from a network for standardization and to simplify updates, and import them locally when individual user customization is desired. • To simplify your deployment, embed tool sets, Custom Columns, statuses, hatch patterns and line styles in Profiles by enabling Include Dependencies. • Use Windows File Permissions with Managed Net Configs, shared Profiles and shared tool sets to control who can make changes.
- 35. Conclusion This concludes The American Institute of Architects Continuing Education Systems Course
Editor's Notes
- #4: We’ll be focusing on how the customizations/standardizations that are detailed in other presentations can be deployed and managed company wide. While some of what we’ll be covering is more technical, we’re not going to put you to sleep with technical info, at least not intentionally, what is possible and the things to consider when planning are what’s import, and we have documentation available that covers this that we’ll talk about at the end.
- #6: Order reversed 7/19
- #8: The previous slide covered what is cusotmized during the install, there are other things that can be deployed after revu is installed, this can be a step in your deployment process, but can also be run anytime after revu is installed.
- #10: What about Create standardized Profiles with Panels, Tabs and toolbars?
- #22: Like Paul was talking about w/ Tool Sets, Profiles can be imported or read from a network. When deciding what’s best for your organization, you want to consider…
- #23: Now with Revu 12, worry about always having a connection to the network is no longer a consideration in using shared network profiles. SF: Can we ditch this ugly and kind of useless screenshot? JA: I was trying to illustrate network profiles and the ability to control which Profiles users access. I’m fine with removing this, but should any other icon or graphic go in its place?
- #35: Tweaked 2nd 3rd and 4th bullet points.